Exxon Mobil sells Torrance plant for $537.5M

Exxon Mobil has closed on the sale of its Torrance oil plant for $537.5 million, 10 months after buyer PBF Energy first made an offer. The sale took nearly a year to complete because of an explosion that destroyed the refinery’s pollution control system in February 2015.

The deal for the 750-acre property is the New Jersey-based oil refinery company’s first foray into the California market, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The plant, located at 3700 West 190th Street, employs 600 employees and can produce up to 155,000 barrels of refined oil products everyday. Exxon opened the plant in 1966.

“It’s a little bit of an unusual transaction in that you had this long time period between the agreements and the closing,” Jeff Dill, president of PBF’s western region, told the Times.

Along with the plant, Exxon Mobil sold PBF terminals and pipelines, including one that runs to oil fields in Bakersfield. PBF is also leasing space at the Port of Los Angeles. [LAT] — Cathaleen Chen